I’m taking a course called Fundraising Operations at Toronto Metropolitan University. I feel funny sharing this because Fundraising Operations is a subject I know a lot about. This is a large part of what my consulting business is focused on and I share what I know and train small nonprofits on the ins and outs of fundraising ops every week.

Here are my reasons (besides the fact that it is a required course for the certificate I’m earning):

Lifelong learner - #ABL: Always Be Learning 🙌

Curiosity - Guess what? There is not a lot out there when it comes to fundraising operations. In my 1.5 years of research now, I’ve come across 1 book dedicated to the topic, a handful of chapters throughout various fundraising textbooks and an equal number of blog posts. There are thousands of resources on business operations out there, but nonprofit ops are SO DIFFERENT. What’s the deal? 

Anyhow, I’m curious about the content of the course and how it compares to my own philosophy and methodology for fundraising ops, which is something I’ve had to mostly develop on my own thanks to the reason above*.

Building sector capacity - OK maybe this is grandiose thinking, but: as someone who has sweated over spreadsheets and tax receipt records for 10+ years now I feel from the bottom of my heart that there is a lack of people who understand this topic, which I think contributes to a lot of problems in the sector: shoestring budgets, lack of diversity in revenue and fundraising staff turnover – especially for small nonprofits. If I can bridge a tiny part of that gap by transferring my skills and knowledge to others via the services I provide and stuff I write/talk about, then I will be happy.

*PS- If you are also curious, and want to hear more about the philosophy and methodology I am developing then watch this space for more. Join my email list for notifications or follow me on LinkedIn where I’ll be plugging 👋